Alpana Pours | Alpana Singh | Talks at Google

All right, how's everyone doing today? It's very exciting because today's Friday. We got a Friday afternoon wine party, one o' clock for our folks in California. It's five o' clock somewhere. It'll be five o' clock here before it is there. So we're gonna get started. Yes, I wrote a little book about wine. You know, it's funny, my history in the wine business was very accidental, as are most great things. I was born and raised in California, not actually too far away. Mountain View, saw a couple of great concerts near there. And I grew up in a first generation Indian American family. My parents actually from the Fiji Islands. They moved to the United states in the 70s. And I was born and raised in Monterey, California. So I did not grow up with wine. My parents did not have a wine cellar. The only real connection that I have to wine was the fact that my dad was a waiter. And so he would have wine around the house, but nothing like extensive cellar verticals of this or talk about wine or have wine taste tast. I actually did not really get interested in wine until later in life, so to speak. I graduated from high school, kind of did not really know what I wanted to do with my life and decided to stay home for a bit and go to school at a local college there. In the meantime, I decided to go apply for a job at this restaurant to see if I could get a waitress position. In applying for the job, they had asked me, what do I know about wine? I said, well, it's me. At the time I was 18, I thought that was pretty good, that I knew that wasn't enough to get the job. And I figured, well, how hard could it be, you know, please, you know, give me a shot. I mean, it can't be that difficult. And bought a couple of books, memorized and came back a week later and asked to be, you know, considered for the job again. And I guess they were kind of amused with me and decided to give me the job anyways. So they said, well, give me the job as long as you really apply yourself and then try to learn the whys on the list. Well, you know, up until this point, I had so many different interests in life. I was, you know, really a history buff in high school. I loved traveling, my parents being in the restaurant business. I was really into, you know, going to restaurants. I mean, if my mother wanted to bribe us with anything, it was a trip to Denny's in the evening. That was a great big thing for us. But it's. It was just it came upon me as I was studying the wines, as promised, that I really, really got into the history, the science, everything that win sort of encapsulates. I really, really got into it. And I caught the so called wine bug. Well, I decided to forego formal college and decided to study wines full time. And at the time the restaurant a gentleman was working, he was running the wine program at this restaurant I was working at. He was studying to become called a master sommelier. And I had no idea that you could actually have a career in wine. You know, it's just one of those things that are just too good to be true. Like people actually pay you to do this job. And then lo and behold that there's an actual organization that cert certified something called a sommelier. And I just thought it was just so exotic and so like, wow, it seems like one of those, like James Bond kind of, you know, jobs out there that's just too good to be true. And so I started asking him about the program, like, so what do you have to do? Like, I mean, do they, you know, is this like a secret society? Like, what's involved? And he said, well, you know, you just sign up for the test. You go take the test, and if you pass, there you go. And so I said, well, I think I want to take the test. And so he's like, all right, well, you have to go work at a wine store, get some more wine knowledge. So I ended up working at a wine store in Carmel called Nielsen Brothers. Really cute little wine store. And I started studying the wine full time. Well, you know, of course, being Indian, you have three options in life. Doctor, lawyer, and of course you Google folks, home tech. Right? Those are our three options. Actually, as a woman, I have a fourth option is to marry any of the three the guy. So hopefully the doctor matches up with the doctor, because I don't think you can like mix doctor with tech. I don't think that's allowed. But I just, you know, my mother did not take it to watch when I told her that I was leaving college to study to become a sommelier. She wanted to know, what part of the body does the sommelier specialize in? And that's actually the book there. And so I had to break it to her that I was actually. It had to do with wine. And she wanted to know why was I drinking wine? When did this start? How was she going to explain it to her friends? And you know, the thing about Indian parents is they're fine with whatever you do just as long as they're friends, understand what you do, because they just want to know, how are they going to explain it? Is it prestigious, Is it top, Is it classy, and is it the best? Those are the three things. So I said, bob, yes, it's the top designation. You're fine. She goes, well, as long as it's the top, it's okay. So I started working at this wine store, and I started studying for the exam, and I actually ended up passing. The master's only exam involves four different levels. There's an intro course, which I'm sure if any of you went to the class and paid attention, you'd be able to pass. It's a nice little introduction to what's involved. And then there's a certified exam where we test your skills table side. And then there's the advanced exam, and then the final level. The advanced and the final level involve three separate exams, which is the blind tasting, the identification of six wines, three whites and three reds, in 25 minutes, the country vintage and the grape variety. There's the service portion of the exam, and then there's the theory portion of the exam. A lot of people don't realize is not only do we have to know about wine, but also about vodka and tequila and spirits and cognacs and pretty much anything fermented. It's an extremely rigorous exam. Right now we have about 83 Master Somas in the entire country, about 124 worldwide, and it has about a 3% pass rate. So if it's a grueling exam, but you get to the point where when you're in, there's no turning back just because you've invested six years of your life in it, you're like, why stop now? So I decided to pursue that, and I passed my advance, like I said, when I was 21, and then I moved to Chicago when I was 23 to run the wine program at Everest, and then finally passed the last level when I was 26. And moving to Chicago from California was a very interesting experience. And I'm not just talking about the weather. I mean, the weather here is, you know, it's interesting. But nonetheless, I love living in Chicago. It's a fabulous city. I don't know if I could live anywhere else besides maybe Monterey, because Monterey's nice. But I really, really enjoy the city. But my experience of working at Everest was sort of my first introduction to seeing how wine could really just affect people in a negative way. And I'm not just talking about getting drunk. I think there's just so much people are very traumatized sometimes because they don't know if it's the right wine or how to pronounce it. And yet I also saw how people use win, sort of trump their guests to sort of intimidate them and make them feel less than worthy. And, you know, night after night, just seeing perfectly smart, capable, intelligent people, you know, saying to me, oh, gosh, I'm really not that sophisticated. I'm not a connoisseur. I mean, just serve me anything. And I just found that really interesting. I hear somebody who's probably running, you know, a big company and yet is telling me and apologizing that they're not that sophisticated. And what is it about this beverage that gets people so, like, you know, just like, full of anxiety. And I just made it sort of my mission to just tell people to relax, you know, I mean, it's just relax. And also my view with wine, just because I didn't grow up with it, and I'm kind of like this outsider looking in. I mean, let's face it, you know, when you look at me, I'm not the typical face of wine. I'm fast becoming the face of wine, you know, but in the general terms, I mean, stereotypical terms, you know, some pompous, snooty French white guy, right, that shows up at your table wearing the chain around his neck or something, and it makes you feel less than worthy. And so I think my generation's approach and our generation's approach is generally just to take that more relaxed attitude. And I think a lot of it has to do with technology and how the world is becoming flat, right? I mean, how many of us have traveled to different parts of the world and Facebook and MySpace and we have friends all over, and I think wine just generally follows that, which we're more willing to try new appellations in new regions. Where 10 years ago, trying to get somebody to try something from Argentina, it's like, first of all, where is Argentina? And now it's like, yeah, Malbec, Toronto. Which one? You know, I mean, I think that's great. So it's a much different atmosphere than when I first got started in the business versus now, you know, and it's very exciting. And there's never been a better time to enjoy wine, especially in this country, you know, as far as the wide variety available. But that still doesn't take away from the fact that a lot of people are intimidated by the subject. And, you know, it's funny because when you look at a Bottle of wine. It's pretty much the only thing out there that you need to know how to operate a special tool. Just how to, you know, to not enjoy it. Beer. Doesn't have that beer. You open it one second flat, it's done. Vodka, no big deal. You know, but I think the mere fact that you have to know how to operate a gadget just to get it open says a lot. When I started working at Let us entertain you, the chairman of our company, Rich Millman, pulled me to his office and he was a little concerned because in a sense, he's like, you worked at Everest, which is a very fancy restaurant, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the customers that you're used to dealing with know a great deal about the subject. You know, what I'm more concerned with is how are you going to explain how to somebody who not only doesn't know the difference between Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, but necessarily doesn't care, and nor should consumers really care to know that, you know, we should really take it upon ourselves and the industry to make it as user friendly as possible. And right now it isn't. Then when you walk into any wine store and not only are you faced with thousands of different grape varieties and then appellations and then regions and then scores and then, oh, my gosh, you know, and how do we pick our wines? The prettiest label. Right? I mean, it's logical. It's the label that speaks to me, you know, and that is human nature. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But having a little bit of knowledge, you know, really does go a long way as far as appreciation is concerned. This week, the New York Times did this wonderful article about wine. It's all in your head. And I thought, finally somebody got it right. One of the biggest misconceptions about wine is that there is a right or wrong answer, and there is no right or wrong answer because it's a very personal, very subjective thing. Half of the people in this room are probably Coca Cola drinkers. Half of the people in this room are probably Pepsi drinkers. You know, you can't give Coke to Pepsi. Well, maybe you can't, but, you know, it's just two different flavors and who's right, who's wrong, you know, and wine is very much the same way. So going back to my conversation with Rich, Rich is like, you know, you know, too much. You know, how do you simplify it? And this got me thinking, you know, what is a very simple, easy way to be able to explain wine to people, where I can teach them wine in 10 minutes. And I was like, I like this challenge. I really like this challenge. And I was thinking. I was thinking, I'm like, gosh, there's just so many million pieces of information here. How do you just distill it into something that is easy to understand and that people can just kind of, like, go away with leaving this room thinking, ah, I get it. You know, I may not know everything, but I know some things. And so I think I figured it out. We'll see. I don't want to be the judge, but when it comes to wine, you can pretty much split it into six different styles. And this is. This is kind of how the book is based. You know, it's. And, you know, going back to the book, it's called, you know, if I could take it back, I'd probably change the title. It's sort of a. I don't know, it's kind of a. It's a weird title. But the relationships part is very misleading because it does. It's not a book on how to get a guy. The relationship part is really how to use wine to improve your relationship. Because wine is used in so many different aspects. It's used in entertaining your friends. It's used in entertaining business clients. It's used to, you know, entertain yourself. So relationships in the sort of more of the macro sense. Not necessarily like, oh, lovey dovey type of relationship. But the crux of the book is based on the six styles of wine. For the white wines, you have three styles of whites and then three styles of red. The three styles of whites are light whites, sweet whites, and heavy whites. For the reds are light reds, spicy reds, and heavy reds. Okay, so with your light whites, these are white wines like Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Brunner, Beltliner, you know, Pinot Blanc, the Albarino. These are just light wines like skim milk, that have sort of a tart, citrusy fruit quality to them. So if you were to imagine a grocery store. So I said, taste this wine. Now picture yourself at the farmer's market, at the grocery store, wherever. And I want you to pick out fruits that sort of describe the smells and the flavors of this wine. What would you pick out? And chances are you would go to things that are green. So green apples, limes, any sort of, like, tart, citrus, sort of, you know, sort of type of fruit there. You would probably even go to, like, herbs like cilantro. Or maybe green bell pepper or green beans. You know, things that have sort of herbaceous, tart, citrusy quality to them. So I'm not talking about ripe apples. I'm talking about tart green apples. Okay, so tart green pears, just things that have this underripe element to them. And when it comes to pairing foods, you can pair them with anything. You'd squeeze sort of a lemon juice. So if it tastes like citrus, if it tastes like lemon juice, then treat it like the condiment, lemon juice. So, you know, if you think about, like a Sauvignon blanc, which is tart, citrusy, if you, you know, think about that lemony quality, you can do it with fish. You can do it with deep fried calamari. You know, you can do it with a vinaigrette that's got a lot of lemony tang to it. You can also do it with salty foods, like things that have soy sauce, perhaps. So, you know, think about sushi, and you can also think about cooking methods. You know, if I ask you to poach a piece of halibut, it's a very light preparation. So you're thinking light style of wine versus you take that halibut, slap some barbecue sauce on it, throw it on the barbecue grill. They've got some smokiness and char flavors now, like, oh, maybe a red wine would be better, you know, so especially with today's style of cuisine, where it's not uncommon to walk into a restaurant and get a curry chicken quesadilla with the guacamole, you know, what do you pair with that? So it's not as simple as chicken with a white wine sauce anymore. So you kind of have to think about different elements, and perhaps you have a dish like your chicken curry guacamole concoction there. Maybe you want to highlight the guacamole. Maybe you want to contrast the sort of tanginess of it. Maybe you want to pair the actual protein. You know, for every dish, you can have five, six different styles of wines. It just depends on what you're going for. So the other thing that's important to remember is if you are a fan of Pinot Grigio, if you like Sauvignon Blanc, perhaps try something within that category. It's nice to have your favorites, but it's also nice to get out and explore. And I use the Chinese restaurant as an analogy. I'm a big fan of Chinese food. If I could pick just one cuisine for the rest of my life, I'd probably pick Chinese food. And I've grown up with it. I'm sure many of you have grown up with it. Yet. It got to a point a few years ago when I realized, wow, I'm 28. I've been eating Kung Pao chicken for 28 years, and I've always wondered what number 32 tastes like, but I'm too scared to order it. And I figured yet I'll probably eat Chinese food again next week. So what's the big deal? Let me order number 32 and see what happens, you know? And so I decided to try ordering other dishes. And what's happened is I've discovered some fabulous new items, you know, so, you know, I still get my favorites, but now I try at least one different dish every time I go out to a Chinese restaurant, because that is how I've learned now I'm like, wow, I didn't realize that they just such a good job with this thing or that or this whatever. And so now when I go out with my friends and I start ordering all these exotic items, they're like, wow, I didn't realize you knew so much about Chinese food. I'm like, I just started ordering stuff, you know, and it's kind of like that, you know, when you go to your favorite restaurant or you're at the wine store, you get Pinot Grigio. All right? It's nice, it's safe. It's fine. But yet, on the by the glass list, maybe they do have a Grunewald leader. Maybe they have a Viognier. Maybe they have a dry rose. You know, what if you order it? What if you like it? What if you go to your wine store? What if you then buy it? What if you show it off to your friends and they're like, I didn't realize you knew so much about wine. And what did you do? You just took a chance and you tried something new. And the great thing about the by the glass program is if you don't like it, you can send it back. It's by the glass. Big deal, you know? And this is really how you can discover and try new things. And I like that. Within that category, you say to your server, you say to the sommelier, because let's face it, not all restaurants have a sommelier, right? It's usually the server, you know, usually drink Sauvignon Blanc. What else do you recommend? That's kind of like that. That's kind of like light, citrusy, tart, green fruits. And then if you go to your wine store, you know, just say to Them I normally drink Sauvignon Blanc. I would like to take three bottles home. That's kind of like Sauvignon Blanc. What do you recommend? And then you discover new things. So then moving on, the second category are the sweet whites. So these are wines like Riesling, de Wurch, Germaner, Bouvray, you know, wines that actually have a little sweetness to them, Actual residual sugar sweetness. Now, a lot of times, you know, wine people describe wines as fruity. And if you're very sensitive to sweet wine, you're like, I don't want anything fruity. I don't like anything sweet. Well, wines have a natural flavor, fruit forwardness to them, but that does not mean that they're going to taste sweet. When we say that a wine is dry, we actually mean that there's no residual sugar in the wine. You know, when we say that a wine is fruity, it just means that it's got the grapefruit flavors, not necessarily actual residual sugar. So when a wine is sweet, you can perceive it at the tip of your tongue as actual sweetness. And sweet wines, unfortunately, get a very bad rap in the US because they think it's not sophisticated. Yet. If you ask the average sommelier like myself, what is our favorite wine, we'll probably say Riesling, because sweetness is just so good with savory foods. And think we've been doing this since we were little kids. What do we like with the hamburger, Root beer, Coke, sodas, Right? Pizza and root beer, great combination. It's just that sweetness and then that savoriness, and it just creates for a great pairing. So if you do spicy foods like Indian food or Mexican food or Thai food, and then all of a sudden you get that little bit of sweetness, it helps sort of combat the heat. It's a delicious thing. I also like to do sweet wines with foods that are salty. So again, going back to the sushi with the soy sauce, just that little bit of sweetness really heightens, you know, it kind of cuts through the saltiness, creates a nice contrast there. Now, when it comes to sweet wines, the fruit flavors are often of summer stone fruits like nectarines, peaches, apricots. And there's always some form of, like, honeysuckle, like a honey smell. And it's quite apparent in the nose of the wine. But, you know, just give them a chance. You know, it's not for everybody. But I think with the right pairing, the sweet wines are just. Just spectacular. And then the final category of the white wine is the heavy whites. So whereas with the light whites, it's green, like skim milk. Heavy whites are yellow, right? So they're like those green fruits have now turned into ripe yellow apples. Ripe yellow pears, they're softened now. What happens when a citrus fruit or when a tart fruit gets ripe? Acidity falls, sugar increases, right? It just becomes softer, more mealy. Just the acidity rounds out. And so we've got the yellow pears, yellow apples, tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes, papayas, pineapple. And you can get other things in the grocery store, like butter or toast or caramel. Sort of this, like, nutty flavor all of a sudden comes through, and the texture more like whole milk. There's more of a weight in the wine. And the predominant grape varieties that we're dealing with here is probably going to be Chardonnay, but you can also do white Rhones like Roussanne, Marsanne blends or Viognier. So there's more of a texture and a weight to them. And texture in white wine can come from barrel treatment, but it can also come from alcohol. Alcohol lends weight and heft to the palate. So if you think about your Pinot Grigio From Italy, it's 12.5% alcohol. It comes from a cool climate, so you're not going to get as much sugar, right? Whereas the sugar, and it ferments over to alcohol. So if you have low sugar to begin with, you're not going to get as much alcohol after fermentation. Whereas the hotter climates give you more sugar in the grape, so when it ferments out, you get higher alcohol. So when we talk about stuff, California Chardonnay, nice, warm, sunny Napa climate, Sonoma climate, Monterey, Santa Barbara, you're going to get alcohol levels of 14 and a half, sometimes 15%. And that alcohol is what gives you just that texture and weight in that palate. You know, sometimes people find that the wines will taste sweet if it's higher in alcohol. This is perfectly okay, because think about a sip of cognac. How heavy is that Cognac in your mouth? Right? It's 40% alcohol and how viscous and thick it is. And that's what happens when wines reach those alcohol levels. So when you talk about your heavy whites, I'm also talking about whites that come from warmer climates. That alcohol just gives you a lot more weight to it. Now, the condiment element here is melted butter. Often times, Chardonnay will taste like melted butter. French Chardonnay is not so much because the cooler climate keeps the acidity levels high. But California Chardonnays, Australia, some parts of Chile, Argentina, you're going to get a lot more of that buttery flavor to it. And it's really nice with any type of food that you serve with drawn butter. So shellfish, lobster, stone crabs, fettuccine Alfredo, dishes with like mushrooms in them. I like popcorn. It's very nice. I used to think that if I skipped the butter and just went great for the buttery Chardonnay, that I'd save calories. But if you drink the whole bottle of chardonnay, it's like 500 calories, which is like five tablespoons of butter. I was telling a friend of mine, I said, you know, I'm a 30 year old woman, I know the calorie content of every single food on this planet. Just ask me and I will tell you what it is. It's in my head. Do you have any calories? Any? So moving on to the red wines. Now with the red wines, you're going to start off with the light reds. Now, the color of wine and the tannins. So tannins is that dry, fuzzy feeling that you get in your mouth, you know, when you have like a heavy red that actually comes from the skins of the grape and the seeds found in the actual grape. So just as there are like thousands of, of different types of apples out there, there are thousands of different types of grapes. And each grape has a different skin structure. So Pinot Noir, Gamay, Sangiovese are thinner skin grapes. So you're not going to get as much color and you're not going to get as much tannin. Okay. Whereas Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec are thicker skin grapes, so you're going to get more color. So Pinot Noir will typically be the color of say red fruits like strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, pomegranate, lingonberries. Where a Cabernet is going to be like black fruits, like black plums, blackberries, cassis, you know, just sort of like dark bluish fruits there. I mean, it's just like the difference between say a Thompson's seedless grape. Alright? Think about how thin that skin is and then versus like the skin of a blueberry, you know, and if you split open a blueberry, what's the inside? It's clear, right? But if you mash it, the color starts to come from where the skins. So the thicker skins give you more color. So our light reds come from grapes that have thinner skins, so they tend to be light in color. You can See through it. Right. So they're. They're transparent. And I'm not talking about all Pinot Noirs, of course. Lately I've seen Pinot Noirs that are just as black as Cabernet. So I'm just talking in sort of like a generalization here. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but as far as the light reds are concerned, they're probably the most food friendly, especially if you're trying to match, you know, a dinner where somebody's ordered pasta, somebody's ordered fish, somebody's ordered steak. You know, it's like, what do I. How do I match everybody's food? You know, the great thing about the light reds, it's not necessarily the redness that gets in the way with doing lobster and red wine. It's the tannins. So if you do pick a red wine with less tannins to it, you can sort of bridge the gap. And a lot of times the light reds will have sort of this tartness to them, sort of like a tart fruit component. If you think about strawberries, if you think about cranberries and pomegranates, as much as we want them to be sweet and juicy, they're often tart. Right. But that tartness is what makes it so great with food. Also, you know, if we're doing spaghetti and meatballs in a tomato sauce, that tomato sauce has a nice tanginess to it. Right. So why is, you know, why do we drink Tuscan wines like Chianti or Sangiovese with tomato sauce? It's because it's tart, so it matches up with the tartness of the tomato sauce. If you're doing salmon, you know, classic pairing for our friends in the Pacific Northwest, you know, salmon and Pinot Noir. It's not just because Oregon grows great Pinot Noir, it should have something to do with it, but it's also because salmon being a very oily fish, you get that tartness, that sort of acidity, and it cuts through the fatness of the salmon. Duck being a very oily sort of a foul there. You know, that acidity cuts through the richness of the duck. And what is duck always served with? Cherry sauce. Right. Sort of makes sense there. A neat little trick that I can teach you guys is, you know, people always say to me, if you tell me it smells like cherries, I get it. If you tell me, oh, cocoa. Oh, I get it. It's not until you say it that, oh, I get it. How do I get to that point myself? A very Easy trick is turn the wine on a 45 degree angle like that against a white background and go, hmm, I sent you to Whole Foods or the farmers market and I said, pick out fruits that are this color. What fruits would you pick out? And chances are those smells are going to be in the wine. So, you know, you can pick up a glass and go, oh, blackberries, black plums, raspberries, black cherries. And your friends are like, how are you doing that? Stop that. Wow. Yeah, I get it. So it's really fun to do that. So then we go to our spicy reds. All right? Spicy reds are things like Zinfandel, Cote Darones, Amarones, Sirrah, Shiraz, which is the same grape. They just call it Shiraz in Australia because they're Australians and they're fun people and they just do whatever they want. But these are wines that actually have some sort of like black pepper, some cinnamon, cloves, star anise, white pepper, some sort of like stewed fruit, spicy component to them. And when you taste it, you can actually taste baking spices. And, you know, spice can also come from the oak barrel. But this flavor is also inherent in the grape variety itself. So when you think about Zinfandel, it's a very robust grape. You know, I like to say that Zinfandel is sort of like the Courtney Love of grape varieties. It leaves nothing to the imagination. Imagination. Apparently it's just calmed down now. So this is Courtney Love circa 1996, or is that the Larry Flint years? Luther? I'm not sure. I can't keep track of my Courtney Love, but then again, who can? So these are sort of like, like I said, the robust. So I like to do them with foods that actually have some sort of spice element to them. So not spices and hot heat spice, like in Indian food. But I'm talking spice like cracked black pepper on a filet, right? Cote du Rhone, Nice black pepper flavor. Think about that peppercorn crusted filet there. Barbecue. Barbecue has a lot of different spices in it. So then you do like that Zinfandel that's got that spice flavor, right? Braised dishes like Ossobuco, or you're doing sort of like a braised pot roast. Then all of a sudden you get that sort of stewed, cooked, raspberry, ripe jam flavors in the wine itself. And it's just a nice hearty mix there. And then the final category are the heavy reds. So these are wines like Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Bordeaux, Bordeaux blends. You know, you cannot See through these wines because the thicker skins, remember more tannins, a lot more chewiness to them. So if you are into, you know, as far as. I'm sorry, if you do like steak, portobello, mushrooms, any type of dish that's got some sort of chewy quality to it, then it's nice to do it with a chewy, heavier wine. So, of course, you can do your cabernet with your braised dish and you can do Zinfandel at the steak. But these are just sort of some general guidelines as far as the food of pairing is concerned itself. So, you know, just. It's nice to just sort of like, jump in and out of styles. But then even within your style, if you know, like cabernet, then try something like Malbec. Try something like, you know, maybe perhaps try another region, like South Africa. I actually was in Greece about two months ago and discovered some lovely wines in Greece from these native grape varieties that you can hardly pronounce, but they're really good, you know. So it's just. It's really about experimenting. And that's sort of like the best advice that I can give you. Now, when it comes to tasting, there's a lot of pomp and circumstance that goes into the ritual of tasting. And it's, you know, we've all seen Frasier, right? You know, Frasier goes through his whole sort of rigmarole and swishing and gargling and smelling and, oh, look at the legs. And it can seem really silly to the outside person. You know, it's funny, I was watching something where they were tasting coffees and they have this whole sort of ritual of like slurping and gargling and sniffing and snorting, you know, and really, wine is no different. But I'm sure just as in why they do what they do to taste coffee, once you learn the reason for it, it makes a lot of sense. And it's the very same thing with wine. So I'd like to kind of go through the process of tasting and kind of explain and break it down why we look at silly as we do and why we do what we do. So the first thing that you'll see in the tasting process is you'll see somebody do this. They go, ah, lovely legs. Look at the legs. You're going to like this. If it has legs, it's going to be nice. Now, that was always something that was really, really silly to me, because legs are. If you swirl wine, I'll do it with the red because you can see it Better if you swirl the wine and. And you watch sort of the legs run down. They're like little streams, droplets that run down. And sometimes, depending on the glass, it doesn't go as quickly, just like a gentle blow on the inside of the glass to get it to run. So there you go. You can see it now. Okay, so what that refers to is wines with higher alcohol levels will have more legs. So, so, for example, a snifter of cognac, you're sitting by the fire and you got your cognac because you're a ladies man, right? And then you see the droplets run down the side. But of course, you'll see that with cognac, because cognac again is 40, 45% alcohol. So wines with higher alcohol levels are going to have more legs. It doesn't matter how fast they run, how thick they are, how thin they run, how slow they run. It's really how many you see within the circumference. And if you see a lot of them just kind of streaming down, then that means it's higher alcohol. So when somebody says, oh, this wine has legs, well, it should have legs because it has alcohol, right? The question is, how many do you see? You know, so I always thought that was kind of funny. Okay, so the next thing you'll see is, you know, they'll usually tilt it on a 45 degree angle. I see people doing this. I don't know what they're looking for. Maybe lost change. I have no idea. You know, they're like this, you know, I don't know, maybe they're toasting God or something, I don't know. But the real way to see is on a 45 degree angle. What you're looking at is the color. Of course, you know, color is important because lighter colored wines, cooler climates, golden colored wines, warmer climates, also give an indication of age. As white wines age, they turn darker in color. They oxidize. So think about that apple that you've cut open, you've left it out on the counter, it browns, right? White wines do the same thing. What preserves the color is going to be acidity. So higher acid wines don't brown as easily, whereas lower acid wines will go faster. But it's a very unique sort of individual thing with certain white wines. It's really hard to predict that, oh, just because it's low acid, it's going to age. It's really kind of an interesting phenomenon. But in general, as white wines age, they will turn yellow, they'll oxidize. Actually, there is A bottle of this wine that I have right now here, the Falangina, one bottle was bad and it turned. And you can tell because it's more brown color. And when you smell it in the nose, it smells like walnuts and sherry and things of that generally smell when they oxidize. Just that nutty, oxidized flavor. So as red wines age, they actually lose color. They go from being a very dark, inky purple color to actually losing color and they end up bricking. So they turn brick, mahogany, eventually orange. Eventually the wine will turn brown, almost like a tawny color. So it perfectly acceptable to think that as a white wine ages and a red wine ages, at some point, they will eventually become the same color. So the best way to explain this is tawny ports. You know, Tawny ports started off life as a very black, inky, purple, indigo colored wine. And because of the aging process, the accelerated aging process in Beryl, it took on this tawny amber color. Whereas if you let a white wine age long enough, it will also become that tawny color. So what we're looking for is just basically, oh, okay, what's the color? It's got some orange to it, it's got some maroon, it's got some bricking. That means it's an older red, it's purple, it's very vibrant violet. It's a younger red. Now, let's just say you go to a wine store and you pick up something from the 2005 vintage and it's on sale for $4. You take it home, it's only four years old and it's already turned sort of this orange color. Is that necessarily good? I don't know. I mean, you gotta taste it. And if it tastes kind of turned and developed and mature, it's probably on sale for a reason. So you just kind of, that's what, that's how you can use this sort of color thing of like, is this normal for this grape variety? Is it normal for this vintage? Typically speaking, wine's 10 years old, older, more, then you're going to expect some browning, some bricking towards the edge there. Okay? So the next thing you'll see us do is you'll see us give the wine a good jostle and you'll see us stick our nose directly in the glass and inhale. Okay. And we're doing is we're smelling the nose of the wine. Okay. And I see people do this. This one right here, you gotta stick your nose directly in the glass. That is the only way to really smell. And the Reason why we give it a jostle is because what that does is it releases the compounds, it releases the aromatics and they become airborne. In this glass of wine are like 10,000 different compounds that once we inhale it, it sends a signal to our brain. And our brain decodes that chemical based on our scent bank and our scent memory. That's why that New York Times article is so great, because it is. It's all in our head. The only thing that we can perceive on our palate when it comes to taste and flavor is acidity, bitterness, saltiness, right? What else is there? Temperature. There is umami, which the Japanese call deliciousness. You know, we can feel bubbles. But the bananas, the blueberries, the peaches, the pineapple, that's all in our head. So wine tasting is actually a very incorrect term. We should call it wine smelling. You know, when we get a cold, what happens? We can't taste anymore, right? Because there's so much mucus that's blocking our nostrils that those compounds can't penetrate the fortress. So it's like this cell, you know, this wall has gone up and nothing can penetrate. We can't decode those chemicals and the compounds. And that's exactly what happens. So. So the good news is it all depends on your scent bank and how developed your receptors are. If you don't have developed receptors for blackberries, blueberries, peaches or whatever, then you're probably not going to pick that up. You'll pick something else that you do have a receptor for. You know, the human brain is really quite fascinating. You can develop new receptors all the time. Up until recently, scientists thought we couldn't do this. Like it was up to what, you turn 10 and that's it, you're done, Your brain's done developing. They've actually discovered that your brain is constantly developing that you can develop new receptors. So the best thing that you can do for your wine tasting ability is to smell your refrigerator when you're cooking, right? Chopping up vegetables, when you're putting spices into your dishes, when you're gardening, pick up the soil, inhale it like, oh, okay. That's what that is. Okay. When you're pouring honey into your tea, like, get that honey smell. Like, ah, okay, I get it now. This is why I find wine so fascinating is because it really does make me pause and literally smell the roses. Because I'm trying to develop my receptors. I did not grow up with this palate. I did not grow up with this gift. It wasn't inherent to me. I remember sitting in the server meetings, and people are going, oh, I get blueberries all day, or I get bananas. I'm like, do they put bananas in the wine? Like, where do you get bananas from? I smell alcohol. And I kept working at it, working at it. I'm like, ah, okay, I get butter. Now I get peaches. Now I'm one of those obnoxious people that's like, do you get a little hint of Barbie doll? I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, no, there's Barbie doll in there. Smell it, smell it. So, you know, and every time you go back to it, you'll smell something else. Because your brain is like, constantly, constantly it's changing. It's like, oh, okay, now it's turning on this receptor. Maybe it's turning on this receptor. And the other great thing about our sense of smell is the fact that it's really the only sense that we have that's directly channeled to our sense of memory, all right? You know, when we touch something, it doesn't necessarily recall an emotion or memory, right? When we see something, it may not trigger a memory. The most sort of intimate sort of trigger to our memories, our sense of smell. And it's very. It's violent, it's passionate. It's just like. It's amazing what sense of smell can conjure up, right? We've all walked past somebody who wore an ex's cologne. We all know what that's like, right? Like, oh, what was I thinking? You know, there are people who will not go near certain colognes because an example, it was cool water for me, it was a bad episode. Or CK1, remember that? Or maybe we smell apple pie to remind us of our grandmother. That's really why I think people get so emotionally connected to wine, because literally, it is an emotion. It is a connection to that memory. And so that's why wine is just so fascinating, because you can transport yourself, yourself via emotion, via memory, to a place, a time, you know, a location. You know, it's like you can just like, transport yourself, you know, just for a brief moment into an area to a place that you can't really do with sight, you can't really do with hearing, you know, maybe with music somewhat. But that sense of smell is really sort of primitive, I think, within human beings. It's reality. So we're smelling, okay? And there's that little trick that I told you to do. You know, look at the color, you know, think about the grocery store, you know, and maybe different whiffs and really talk to people, because that power suggestion is really important. And really don't get discouraged. Like I said, if somebody's going, oh, I get blueberries. And you're like, I'm not really getting blueberries. You know, what do people do? I must not be that sophisticated, or I'm just not really good at this. You know, it's a very personal thing. You know, it just depends on what you're getting and what your scent bank is. Everyone's scent bank is different, like I said, okay? So we're giving that wine a good swirl. We're smelling it a couple times, and you're probably thinking, is she ever going to drink? Like, is there any drinking that tastes like, yes, it does. So then you take a sip, okay? And here's the gurgling sensation, okay? And that gurgling, what that does is you're not really gargling. You are drawing air over your palate. And that air, right, goes over the wine. It grabs those compounds and it brings it up the retronasal cavity. You know, that's that situation where people, you know, drop milk out of their nose or spill milk out of their nose. That's an open cavity right there. Okay? So if you draw air over your mouth, it draws the compounds, and it comes through the back nasal cavity, and then it hits that little thing in our nose olfactory bulb there, and then it goes to our brain. So what that does is the combination of temperature and that air sucking over it heightens the flavor of the wine. Remember, flavor is not. You're tasting blueberries and peaches. You're actually stuck smelling it. So that is why that gurgling goes on. It's really sort of a drawing air back. And then, you know, the washing of the wine around the mouth is really to kind of really get the texture, the tactile sort of impression. And what we're judging here is length and finish, you know, and the tannins. Are the tannins really rough? Are they soft? Are they integrated? Is it smooth? How's the acidity? How's the temperature? You know, how long after I swallow the wine does the flavor persist? That's length. Is it one second, two seconds? It's soft, it's velvety, it's fine. It's not like it rips all the moisture out of your mouth. That's what that refers to. And, you know, well, integrated tannins could be a process of aging. It could be a ripeness level in the grapes itself. You know, unripe grapes are going to give you, you more rough tannins, riper grapes will give you softer tannins. So it could be a winemaking technique that they used. It could be the extended aging. It's a number of factors that will give you well integrated tannins. So then you have the length and finish, and then the last step is, do you like it? You know, which is probably the most important thing. So what we're looking at is the color, the legs, right? The swirling, the smell, and then the gargling and then the finish. Sometimes we'll do that just to get some sort of residual flavor, but that's really sort of the rigmarole of tasting. Now, I did bring up an important thing, and that was temperature. And for the most part, when it comes to our white wines, we drink them way too cold. Which again, if it's like 110 degrees and you're out on your boat, yeah, chill that Sauvignon Blanc as much as possible because it's 110 degrees outside, you know. But a lot of times, if you are buying a very expensive Chardonnay, because you like the buttery ness or you like the aromatic quality of it, anytime you chill a white wine, you shut down its flavor. So in general, the cheaper the white wine and the more simple the white wine, the colder it should be. It's a great way to sort of shut down flavor. So Pinot Grigio, right? You get a nice five dollar Pinot Grigio, chill it completely, because that will shut down any sort of off flavor that you're going to get. Whereas your more expensive Chardonnays or Viogniers, wines that you want to sort of appreciate the texture, even Champagne, you want to serve it not so chill, so probably around 45, 48 degrees, because it lets you appreciate more of the flavors. Now, when it comes to red wine, we usually drink them way too warm, you know. So, for example, if you bottle of red wine, you know, you're going to have a nice little, you know, romantic sort of evening in the weekend. You go to Sam's or vintage, you get your bottle of red wine, you put it on the counter and you wait for that moment. And what happens is if you keep your house at 75 degrees, that wine is now 75 degrees, which is way too warm. So when you do serve red wines that warm, all you're going to taste is the acid, all right? You're going to taste sort of the off flavors. It's like drinking warm vodka. You know, we all know a warm vodka, it tastes like, admit it, it's like rubbing alcohol, right? But if you slightly chill it, put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, put it on top of the piece for about 10 minutes, it'll drop the temperature to around 64, 60 degrees. And it just makes this world of difference. It brings out the fruit, it tones down the alcohol, it just heightens the, you know, the general fruit profile of the wine. And just as you can take your inexpensive white wines and make it taste better, you can do the same trick with your red wines. So you can just put a little chill on it. It makes it actually taste more expensive, sort of like around that cellar temperature. So try that trick at home tonight because I know you're all going to drink wine when you get home tonight. If you have a bottle of something red, pour yourself a glass at room temperature, put it in the room refrigerator for about 10 minutes and come back to it. Pour a glass side by side and you'll notice a world of difference. I mean, I've gotten to the habit where I go to restaurants now. I just asked for an ice bucket and the waiter says to me, you know, it's a red wine. I'm like, I know. And then another thing that I want to talk about is screw caps, because I know this will come up. Screw caps, you know, just people at some point, you know, they need to get out of their head. That screw cap is, you know, nitrate or Mad Dog or Boone Farm or something like that. Screw cap is actually a quality measure. 10% of all the wines finished with cork will have a problem called cork taint. You know, cork is a natural object. So anytime you have a natural object, you run the risk of bacterial infection, etc. So a bacteria embeds itself into cork. When they sanitize the cork with chlorine, it produces a chemical called trichloroanisol. And humans can detect this in amazing small quantities. And it'll actually, once that cork goes into the bottle of wine, doesn't matter if it's a five dollar wine or $5,000 wine, it'll make the wine taste moldy and mildewy. And we've all sort of experienced this flavor before. You ever get like a raw piece of carrot and it's just tastes dirty like that mildew flavor. That's what I'm talking about. The entire bottle of red wine will taste like that or white wine will taste like that. And so to eliminate this problem, you either use a synthetic core or use a screw cap. And so screw caps are, you know, they're great. They're very convenient. You don't have to worry about using a wine opener. You're done. And the best part is, if you don't finish the bottle, you screw it back on, you put it in the refrigerator, and you don't have to put it on the side and it won't spill open or whatever. Now, the only problem with screw caps is some people find that the wines don't really age as well with the screw cap. But 90% of all the wines purchased in this country are consumed within seven days of purchase. So we're not really concerned with aging our wines as much. I doubt that you're going to see your Chateau Margaux under screw cap anytime soon. I'm talking about those wines like Sauvignon Blanc, like Pinot green juice, you know, like our easy drinking zins, like our roses, things that we're going to drink as soon as we purchase them within a month or so. Okay. You know, why run the risk of it being spoiled if you can guarantee a perfectly fresh, delicious product? You know, I've had too many dinners spoiled because I purchased a bottle of wine, I open it, and it's corked. You know, it's like, ugh. And then what you do is you put the cork back in, you drive over to the wine shop and you return it, and you have to explain to them what's wrong with it. And then they give you your money back. But it's a hassle. Who really does that? Most of us will probably just dump it down the drain. And that is only if we know that there was a problem to begin with. If you don't know that the wine is cork, what do you do? This thing tastes bad and you never buy it again. You tell your friends not to buy it. Like, oh, I had that. So buy it, you know, so screw caps are a very good thing. I think that not only do they make the enjoyment of wine easier, but they ensure a fresh product the way it was intended to be. So, yes. What about boxes of wine? Boxes of wine. You know, in Australia, they've had a great amount of. I mean, they've had a great amount of success with inexpensive wines. Put a bag in a box. And the history in this country with box wines has been the not so good stuff, you know, like the bottom of the barrel. You know, I won't mention any names, but, you know, we all know what they are, right? So there has also been this great renaissance, or actually not even a renaissance, but a great trend of, you Know, wines within that five to ten dollar price point that has some sort of animal on them. Right. You know, we get them at Trader Joe's, you know, you get them at Whole Foods, whatever. You get them at Costco, they got some sort of animal on them. And if you're buying 12 at a time or you're buying six at a time and all you're going to drink is a glass or two a day, you know, so what they do is they just take what you would purchase in a mass quantity and they put it in a collapsible bag that goes into a box that goes neatly in your refrigerator. You extract a glass at a time, and then as you extract it, it just collapses, so no oxygen gets in. So it's a very convenient way for people who do drink the two buck chucks or the big fish or the smoking loon or whatever to be able to have a glass or two at a time. And then the environmental impact is also greatly reduced as well because the cardboard is not as damaging as the glass. As long as the quality is. Is on par with what consumers should expect, I don't have a problem with it because it's very convenient and it's just nice to be able to not have to worry about, oh, I've got to drink this tonight, otherwise it'll go bad. That's a good excuse. Yes. Cooking wine. My wife and I can argue about the cooking wine if it's. Well, she'll say, don't use a really cheap wine. Yeah, I mean, I think anything less than $10 between that 5, $10 price point is okay. If it says cooking wine on the bottle, it's bad. But no, I think within $5, $10, it's fine. I mean, I would definitely not use a $20, $30 bottle of wine. That's just being silly. And you really wouldn't want to use that expensive a wine because usually it'll have some barrel treatment. It's just sort of a waste of the wine. But I think a simple Pinot Grigio Sauvignon Blanc, you know, five, ten dollars, I think it's fine because anytime you cook with it, you know, it concentrates the flavor. So, you know, it's. You're both right in that aspect. Any other questions? Yes, I actually get what you're saying about smelling the wine. No, you know what it's like. It is a very exotic language. But if it smells like grass, it smells like grass. You know, you'll probably taste something that is reminiscent of. Yeah, it smells like fresh cut grass. And that's not necessarily bad things, but stoniness, you know, stoniness is, you know, it's funny because it is a very weird language. And sommeliers really have a tough time sometimes, because for us, it's not a bad thing to describe a wine as stoniness. That's just what it is. But yes, for the consumer sometimes, like, I don't want to eat leather. I don't want hay, I don't want barnyard. So that's why we use the term earthy earth. Whenever you hear earthy, that's just. Yeah, that's sort of like a nice way of saying barn, leather, hay, things like that. But yeah, it's, you know, you're trying to take something that. Well, I'm experiencing, that I'm feeling, and I can't touch you and have you experience it. So I'm trying to take words to describe it. And yeah, I mean, sometimes it's a misconnection there, but you just have to kind of get. Use the language. Yeah. And you may not like the flavor of the grass, but perhaps you'll perceive it as green tomato or maybe jalapeno or green peppers. So it's not a direct translation. Like, it is this flavor. Maybe you'll perceive it as something else. Yes, I did a wine class and every one they gave us was in a different glass. Can you talk about, like, you know, some of them were really funky. And is there. I mean, is it just for style or is there. No, there is some basis to the glassware question. I prescribe four basic shapes. Now, whether you want to get the Chardonnay glass with the Chardonnay, the Pinot noir glass with the Pinot, it's really up to you. I certainly don't do it for myself because I have a very clumsy husband who likes to break glassware when he puts in the dishwasher. And so, you know, costly. And it's really a good racket. Because when do you use your stemware when you're drunk? Right? Like, oh, I gotta put it away. Oh, there was $20. You know, it's really a good racket. There's a reason why they've been doing it for 13 generations. But no. So the four basic shapes that I recommend, it's in the book, actually. It's the champagne flute for your champagne, obviously, put cocktails in there. You have your basic white wine glass to put your Chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, you know, your general white wines. And then with the red glass you have the balloon shape. And the reason for the balloon is that it heightens the aroma of the wine. Okay. And then you have the Bordeaux shape, which is kind of like this. And the reason for that is when you swirl the wine, more of the wine goes up the sides of the glass, and it creates more of a sheeting action which opens it up, it gets more oxygen. So you could put your cabernets, Merlot's, wines that have a lot of, you know, tannin to them to sort of open up. And then you put your more aromatic reds like your Zins or Nebbiolas or Pinot Noirs in the bowl shaped glass. You can drink your white wine out of that glass, too. It's really up to you. What I don't recommend is getting the glasses or goblets, you know, the cut glass, they're very heavy. I don't recommend that. And I don't recommend it getting colored stemware, because then you can't see the color. But there are so many different companies out there that offer, you know, various styles and shapes, and it's really a personal decision on what you'd like to go with. And like I said, if you want to do the Syrah for the Syrah glass, knock yourself out, go for it. There have been tasting done where people are like, wow, it really does make the wine taste better. And I'm sure there's some sort of basis for it. But not enough for me to go out and buy a glass for every single grape variety, because that would just be crazy. Unless they want to give it to me, I'm more than happy to take it. And we're running out of time, so maybe one more question. And then there's wine in the back. So just for some motivation, Especially red wine, there are two things that you can do. The enemy of wine once it's open is oxygen. So you want to eliminate oxygen from the equation. You can do that by removing the oxygen out of the bottle by taking the wine pump. So it's a little gray stopper in the T bar wine pump, and you suck all the air out. You can buy the little sprays, the little nitrogen gas that creates a blanket that won't let oxygen penetrate through it. You can also transfer the wine to a smaller container where there's less oxygen hitting the wine itself. So I would say the easiest thing to do would be to invest $15 in that little wine pump, little gadget. All the fine dining restaurants in the city use it. So I use it at Everest, and it works. Like a charm. You could extend the life of the wine two days. Two, three days. And then you leave it out. You leave it out? Yeah. Just make sure it's not next to the stove. But I had a bottle of Magnum of Merlot that we had at a party. We probably about this much left, and it was near the stove. Two weeks later, I come home and my husband Charles is drinking it. And I'm like, please don't tell me you're drinking that wine that was near the stove. He's like, what? It tasted fine. So if you're Charles, you can drink it two weeks near the stove, and it's fine. Well, thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity to come chat with you today. Hopefully you've learned a few things about wine here and there, and lo and behold, you've got plenty of wine in the back to practice your new knowledge, or maybe old knowledge, you know, so. But really, it's a nice pleasure to be here today, and I want to thank all of you for making my life easier, because I don't know what I would do without Google. I mean, Googling Google. Thank you.